Thursday, January 19, 2017

Beat the press? A new president arrives -- Jan. 19, 2017 column

By MARSHA MERCER

In the lull before the
inaugural storm, I walked around the Capitol and admired the refurbished dome
gleaming in the sun.

School kids snapped
selfies, guards chatted amiably among themselves and groundskeepers shoveled
mulch. Except for cell phones and increased security, not much has changed on
Capitol Hill since my first presidential inauguration five presidents ago.

Then as now many in the
nation’s capital were apprehensive about an incoming

Republican president with
show business ties. The avuncular Ronald Reagan, though, had served two terms
as governor of California.

Avoiding school groups winding
around the Supreme Court building, I ducked into the Library of Congress to
visit America’s treasures. Thomas Jefferson’s library? Check. The Gutenberg
Bible? Check.

The Herblock Gallery’s
selection of 10 political cartoons reminds visitors that political and social
conflict are not new. For more than five decades, Herbert L. Block, a
politically independent editorial cartoonist, lacerated the powerful and championed
the ordinary citizen. Block, who won three Pulitzer Prizes, died in 2001.

The Herblock exhibit
changes every six months. The current exhibit, through March 11, shows cartoons
from1966, during the Vietnam War. Some of the issues still resonate: gun
control, electronic surveillance, the struggle between factions of the Republican
Party and campaign finance.

I was thinking of Herblock’s
sharply drawn cartoons when President Barack Obama in his last presidential news
conference told reporters: “You’re not supposed to be sycophants; you’re
supposed to be skeptics.”

Perspective is often keen
in retrospect. Obama’s relationship with the White House press corps over the
years was civil but strained. He promised transparency, but his administration
had an abominable record with Freedom of Information Act requests.

The administration
stiffed one of every six FOIA requests, setting a record for the number of
times an administration claimed it could not find documents requested, an
Associated Press investigation revealed last year.

Obama preferred
one-on-one TV interviews and speeches to news conferences. When he did have
news conferences, he called only on reporters on a list. His long answers meant
fewer questions could be asked.

Now comes billionaire
businessman President Donald J. Trump, whose combative style toward the news
media is legendary. No president likes negative stories, of course, but most have
the self control to keep their anger under wraps.

Trump has been openly
hostile -- calling out reporters and yanking their credentials during the
campaign, dismissing reports as fake news and refusing to answer questions from
news outlets he deems unfair.

Trump’s team is considering
whether to evict reporters from the West Wing, where they’ve been working since
the William McKinley administration. Also under consideration: dropping live TV
coverage of daily press briefings, started during the Clinton administration.
Critics say the format encourages grandstanding and posturing by reporters. Imagine
that.

Most Americans probably
have little sympathy for reporters being ousted from the briefing room, but
Obama endorsed having reporters onsite and not across the street.

Offering indirect advice
to his successor, Obama told reporters: “Having you in this building has made
this place work better. It keeps us honest; it makes us work harder.”

It’s not as though
reporters wandered around the White House at will, dropping into Cabinet
meetings. They are on a very short leash, limited to the press staff area.

Obama recognized
belatedly that part of the job as president is shaping public opinion.

“There were big
stretches, while governing, where even though we were doing the right thing, we
weren’t able to mobilize public opinion firmly behind us to weaken the resolve
of the Republicans to stop opposing us or to cooperate with us,” he said in a
recent interview with CBS.

Obama said he will be glad
to be a consumer of news rather than its constant subject.

Trump has a knack for
shaping opinion, although he succeeded in the election in gathering more people
against him than for him.

And, though he
complains he has received the worst media treatment in American history, Trump only
now starts living in the media glare and intense scrutiny of the presidency.